The County of Kaua‘i is wrong when it claims that there is public beach access across Papa‘a Bay Ranch lands. That’s the contention of Hollywood executive Peter Guber’s Mandalay Properties Hawai‘i LLC, the owner of Papa‘a Bay Ranch. The Los
The County of Kaua‘i is wrong when it claims that there is public beach access across Papa‘a Bay Ranch lands.
That’s the contention of Hollywood executive Peter Guber’s Mandalay Properties Hawai‘i LLC, the owner of Papa‘a Bay Ranch.
The Los Angeles-based company filed a federal lawsuit Friday against the County of Kaua‘i in the United States District Court for Hawai‘i that seeks a determination that there is no public beach access running across their property at Papa‘a Bay.
Paul Alston, of the Honolulu law firm of Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing, who represents the owner of the Ranch, said in a press release released Friday: “Although the mayor appropriately cautioned the public not to go onto the ranch until the legal process is concluded, there is no sound legal or factual basis for the county’s claim to roadway access. In truth, the county’s research does not even support the mayor’s pronouncement. The notion that Papa‘a Road extends to the beach is simply a fiction.”
That’s contrary to what Mayor Bryan Baptiste announced in mid-June, when he said that following a title search by the County of Kaua‘i it was determined that a beach access exists across ranch property to the small white sand beach at Papa‘a Bay.
The mayor said then that the public needed to wait to use the access until the exact route is established.
In June, Baptiste said a study done by Big Island attorney Michael Matsukawa, a specialist in public beach access, shows access exists over a section of the ranch known as the Widemann Reservation.
“Through the Widemann estate, there is some type of public road, and we say that it has existed,” Baptiste said in an interview with The Garden Island. “And no information has shown that has changed over the years. Nothing to say that the road has been done away with.”
As of Friday, July 23, the county had not received a copy of the lawsuit and was unable to comment on it, according to Cyndi Mei Ozaki of the mayor’s office.
In December 2003 four people were arrested and prosecuted for trespassing on the ranch property during an attempt to cross ranch lands to the beach at Papa‘a.
In addition, Guber filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking damages against William Young and other involved for encouraging the act, and for what his company says caused a negative affect on the pending sale of the Papa‘a Bay Ranch.
Alston said the public already has access to an existing access trail to the white sand beach at Papa‘a. The access requires a walk around the coast to the beach, rather than direct access, as the mayor believes exists down Papa‘a Road.
“The County has no grounds to demand that the landowner create a second public access by recognizing a non-existent road that will bring the public onto his front yard, greatly devalue the Ranch, and intrude on his privacy,” Alston said. “We fully expect the federal court will agree that the county is way off base.”
Chris Cook, Editor, can be reached at ccook@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 227).
